Climate Red - News and Views on Climate Change Issues.

Business body makes climate change plea



November 7, 2007 - 6:29PM
Advertisement

Business think tank Environment Business Australia (EBA) has written an open letter to both the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party, calling for bipartisan support on climate change action.

EBA's open letter outlines seven key climate change and clean energy actions, and asks each party to indicate by November 16, which of them they would commit to if elected later this month.

EBA chief executive Fiona Wain said action on climate change needed to be a national priority with bipartisan support.

"Urgent, bipartisan action is needed," she said.

"Business needs clear policies and strategies so it can get on with making a sensible transition to an economy which must reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).

"Australia can lead the way in showing how an energy intensive economy can be more efficient, and use cleaner and renewable sources of energy."


Ms Wain said there was also a huge opportunity to take advantage of the growing $750 billion environmental industry market, which is expected to double in the next decade.

"Australian business is ready to rise to this challenge. We look to government for the strategy and the policies that will help Australian companies access a fair share of the global $750 billion environment industry market," the letter says.

"Together we can take advantage of the commercial opportunities that will offer Australians new employment opportunities."

Some of the key requests in the letter are for both parties to commit to fast-tracking the national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trading scheme beginning as early as 2009, adopt mandatory national targets, ratify the Kyoto Protocol and provide federal funding for initiatives.

Some initiatives include funding for demonstration projects in solar thermal, wind and geothermal, and/or re-skilling work force and training scientists and engineers.

Last week, Labor committed to setting a Renewable Energy Target for Australia of 20 per cent by 2020.

The Liberal Party recently lifted its target to about 15 per cent in the same time frame.

On Monday, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment & Heritage Peter Garrett said he was committed to making "Australia the clean energy hub of the Pacific".

"Ten years of denial has put us 20 years behind," Mr Garrett told a dinner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Sydney.

"We believe Australia should be at the forefront of energy efficiency, not a distant follower.

"Action on climate change is an economic imperative as well as an environmental one."

Mr Garrett also said there is a possibility to fast-tracking a trading scheme, which could be in place by 2010.

Ms Wain told AAP this was a good step forward, and targets are conceivable.

"If the right policy settings were put in place, and I stress the if, it would be relatively easy to achieve 20 per cent cuts by 2020, and a report hat we have prepared shows that you can get actually as far as 61 per cent cuts by 2020," she said.

"It's not a hardship to the economy, it is an investment in developing our next combative edge."

Minister of Environment and Water Resources Malcolm Turnbull has yet to respond to the letter.

Ms Wain said the urgency cannot be underestimated.

"We are going to need absolutely everything to throw at this problem and the urgency cannot be underestimated," Ms Wain said.

"And the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report that comes out on November 17 is going to stress exactly that fact."

The IPCC has been established to assess scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, with its fourth assessment called, "Climate Change 2007", due for release next week.